Saving Mothers' Lives: - Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland

Table 1.13
Total number of Direct and Indirect deaths age of the women who died and rate per 100,000 maternities;
United Kingdom: 1985-2005*.
Age (years) Not stated All ages
Under 20 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39
40 and
over
1985-87
Numbers
15 47 53 60 35 13 0 223
1988-90 17 38 74 57 31 18 3 238
1991-93 7 30 87 61 36 7 1 229
1994-96 15 40 71 70 53 11 8 268
1997-99 19 34 60 66 50 13 0 242
2000-02 16 30 70 79 47 19 0 261
2003-05 15 39 66 91 64 20 0 295
Rates per 100,000 maternities
1985-87 7.6 7.1 6.7 13.6 22.8 48.4 9.8
1988-90 8.8 6.0 8.9 11.5 18.7 57.4 10.1
1991-93 4.2 5.5 10.6 10.9 19.1 20.6 9.9
1994-96 10.2 9.0 9.6 11.5 24.1 29.1 12.2
1997-99 11.7 8.9 9.3 10.5 19.2 29.0 11.4
2000-02 10.6 8.2 13.0 13.2 16.2 35.6 13.1
2003-05 9.9 9.8 12.4 14.5 19.1 29.4 14.0
* Chi squared for trend = 21.0, p = 0.00000.
Parity
Just under half of the 64 women who died from Direct and the 30 who died from Coincidental causes
were primiparous, compared to 34% of the 55 women who died from Indirect causes. Twenty women who
died of Direct or Indirect causes had four or more previous live births; one having eleven previous living
children. Maternal mortality rates by parity have not been estimated for this triennium. Parity is recorded at
birth registration only for births within marriage.
Multiple pregnancies
Eleven women who died had twin pregnancies; six deaths were due to Direct or Late Direct causes and
fi ve were Indirect. Four other mothers of twins died of Late Coincidental causes. Table 1.14 shows that in
2003-05 the difference between the rates for multiple and singleton maternities was greater than would be
expected by chance and the risk of death associated with multiple birth varies around twice that associated
with singleton birth.
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